Sex abuse cases in S. Korean sports world reveal its ills

A series of sexual abuse cases have rocked the South Korean sports world in recent days, revealing deep-rooted evils in the sports community: obsession with gold medals and the secretive nature of the sporting world.

Local newspaper Hankyoreh reported on Monday that Shin Yu-yong, a former female judoka, was sexually assaulted by her high school coach on about 20 occasions between the summer of 2011 and 2015.

The 24-year-old filed a complaint against her unidentified former coach with Seoul police in March last year, posting the sexual assault revelation last November in her Facebook page.

Her claim recently gained public attention after a news report that a South Korean short-track Olympic gold medalist had accused her former coach of sexual violence.

On Jan. 8, local broadcaster SBS reported that Shim Suk-hee, 22, sued her former coach, Cho Jae-beom, in December last year over repeatedly raping and sexually molesting her since 2014 when she was a high school student.

The alleged sexual assault continued until about two months before the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February 2018, which was hosted by South Korea in its eastern city of PyeongChang. Shim won a gold in the women's 3,000-meter short track relay during the winter Olympic event.

Cho's attorney told SBS that he had denied the allegation, while the former judoka's coach told Hankyoreh that he had a romantic relationship with her, denying the sexual violence claim.

Cho was already indicted on charges of physically assaulting four short-track skaters, including Shim, from 2011 to January 2018. He was put in prison in September last year, after being sentenced to 10 months in jail.

More sexual violence cases could be around the corner. Yeo Jun-hyung, former coach of the national short track speed skating team, told a press conference last week that at least two victims of sexual assault by their coaches were confirmed during investigation for the past two months, with three to four victims being suspected.

Female athletes here are vulnerable to sexual molestation because of the closed off nature of the sports world, many observers say.

In South Korea, coaches hold a huge sway over the career of athletes, discouraging sexual abuse victims from telling the truth. An influential coach from a powerful faction in the sports world is allegedly capable of expelling an athlete from the sports community permanently.

Obsession with gold medals also fostered the culture in the sports world that allowed this behavior to thrive.

The medal's color is a sole standard to decide how much prize money and pension is granted to athletes and how capable coaches are. Male athletes with Olympic gold medals, for example, get exemptions from mandatory military service.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a meeting with his top aides Monday that the recent series of revelations of physical and sexual violence in the sports community represented a shameful underbelly in the sporting world.

Moon emphasized that no violence can be justified for the purpose of winning medals in international sports competitions, instructing officials to review and overhaul the system, instructing officials to draw up countermeasures.